Moroni - More than 30 people including soldiers and secessionists died in the Comoros in a failed attempt to crush a separatist rebellion on Anjouan island, a Comoros Red Crescent official said yesterday.
The official, who declined to be identified, spoke by telephone from the nearby island of Moheli shortly after a French radio station reported a preliminary death toll of 40 Comoran soldiers killed in the fighting on Wednesday and Thursday.
He said his information was based on radio contacts with aid workers on Anjouan. The government of embattled President Mohamed Taki has cut direct telephone links with Anjouan and censored news about the fighting on Comoran state radio.
Government forces suffered a battlefield drubbing at the hands of secessionist militia, whose leadership remains a mystery. Mr Taki had sent his ill-equipped and poorly trained army into Anjouan on Wednesday to end the secession crisis but the operation backfired.
Anjouan declared its secession on August 3rd after months of protest and civil unrest. Moheli, the smallest island, followed suit. The Anjouan capital, Mutsamudu, is under control of secessionists, who say independence from France in 1975 has brought only poverty and numerous coups.